WELLS: News isn't a call away anymore

For old-time journalists like me, advances in technology have not been particularly helpful in the news gathering business especially breaking news.

For example, the Illinois State Police recently consolidated all of their Southern Illinois dispatch centers to DuQuoin. No longer can you call the local post and ask what's going on. Now, the dispatchers are quick to inform you that a press release will be issued later if the incident is big enough to warrant one.

In earlier days, you could call down to the cop shop at five in the morning and chat with a dispatcher or desk sergeant about what went on overnight. Those days are pretty much gone now, as most public servants are forbidden from talking with the media.

While cell phones are a wonderful development, they have forced the near extinction of the pay phone. Why is this significant in the business of news gathering, you ask? Well, I used to keep a list of pay phone numbers around the smaller towns in the area.

Let's say I heard about a big fire in some small town out in the middle of nowhere. I would simply ring up the pay phone there, and invariably, someone would answer. More often than not, they would be standing within sight of the flames and could give me a pretty good idea of what was going on. While not always a quotable news source, they most always could confirm what was happening.

Gone too are the days a news guy could dial zero, get an operator you know by name, and ask what's going on in a particular town. Before computer assisted emergency dispatch centers, telephone operators were 911. Dial zero today, and there's a pretty good chance it will be answered in Malaysia or some city I can't pronounce.

Old fashioned, low tech news gathering techniques are sometimes the best even in todays' high-tech world. I once got a tip that someone had been murdered in Old Shawneetown.

I made the obligatory calls to the city police, sheriff's department and State Police and got nowhere. Scratching my head a bit, I remembered the name of a tavern in Old Shawneetown. "I'll bet you a horse and a hundred dollars that someone in that honkey-tonk has heard what's going on," I told myself. Using an actual phone book (they still print them I think), I found the number and phoned the bar. The lady that answered was sobbing so hard, I could hardly understand what she was saying.

I was finally able to calm the bar maid down enough to ask her if she had heard anything about a killing in Old Shawneetown. "Yeshe's been shot. He's in the back room," she said. "I've gotta' go the cops are asking me who I'm talking to." Not every day do you have the opportunity to call directly into a crime scene but it has happened.

With so many people dumping their home phones and switching to cell phones only, it has made news gathering even more difficult. So far, I haven't seen a cell phone book.

Despite all the changes, the news business is still exciting. Even if I have to get to get off my butt and drive to where the news is happening, it's still worth the trouble.